Fashion pioneers Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney will make unique contributions to the main exhibition of State of Fashion 2018, the first international fashion event that focuses entirely on a more sustainable and fair fashion system. The first edition, with the theme ‘searching for the new luxury’, takes place from 1 June to 22 July 2018 in Arnhem. De Melkfabriek, an old industrial monument on the Rhine, forms the backdrop for the presentation of around fifty innovative projects that intend to change the fashion industry. The full programme and participants can now be found on our website.

Designer Vivienne Westwood is one of the pioneers in the field of putting sustainability on the agenda in the fashion industry. From an activist mentality – summarised in her motto “buy less, choose well, make it last” – she contributes to the main exhibition at De Melkfabriek with a grand, custom-made installation featuring 100 bags and prints from her collaboration with The Ethical Fashion Initiative and the United Nations.

Stella McCartney will present a two-part installation at State of Fashion 2018. Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen visualised McCartney’s views on sustainability in a video work, which is presented in an overwhelming installation. In addition, she shows a look from her SS2018 collection.

In addition to McCartney and Westwood, the exhibition presents a controversial mix of contributors: revolutionaries such as Fashion Revolution and Apparatus 22 are presented alongside commercial powerhouses such as G-Star RAW and H&M. Innovators such as Bruno Pieters, Osklen and Iris van Herpen are shown in relation to new makers such as Orange Fiber, Self-Assembly, Ecoalf, Pauline van Dongen, Rafael Kouto and 11.11/eleven eleven. In collaboration with ArtEZ University of the Arts and Wageningen University & Research, the results of a research into fashion and textiles are presented in a Living Lab, where the boundaries between fashion and other disciplines are explored.

But what about…
The theme ‘searching for the new luxury’ raises both questions and ideas. To provide a platform for this, State of Fashion organizes a Whataboutery every Friday evening for the duration of the exhibition. The Whataboutery comprises an evening in which international speakers enter into conversation with the public, questions are answered and discussions take shape. The first Whataboutery takes place on Friday 1 June and is dedicated to #agency. Designers Rafael Kouto (CH), Matti Liimatainen (FI), Anneke Hymmen (NL) & Kumi Hiroi (NL), Button Massala (IN), 11.11 (IN), Kristina Walsh (UK) and Elisa van Joolen (NL) go into conversation about their changing role as a designer.

Early Bird Tickets
A limited number of discounted Early Bird Tickets are available from 5 April!